Discussion about this post

User's avatar
Toby Rogers's avatar

Here's the thing about the Brahmins -- they're addicts. And the thing they are addicted to is winning. Since infancy they were showered with praise for being the best and brightest and so they came to believe it. They see it as their birthright. But in real life, particularly in adulthood, it's nearly impossible to win all of the time. So they are drawn to rigged games and cartels. *That's* how investment banking, management consulting, and private equity firms hook them right out of college -- those are all examples of rigged games (banking/Wall Street) or industries that engage in market rigging (private equity). Rigged games seems normal and natural to them -- because they like the outcome and the emotion hit that this gives them. They have no critique of corruption and no ethics, there is just winning and losing and they will say or do anything to make sure that they are always on the winning side. All relationships then become transactional. There are only so many hours in the day so all friendships and family relationships are aligned to serve the goal of winning in any and every area of life. It's all really quite miserable and empty.

Expand full comment
Linda Hagge's avatar

I taught at a university for 30 years, not Ivy League, and it's my observation that sometimes high intelligence and critical thinking go hand in hand, but more often not. As many have observed, succeeding in academic life often has more to do with how well you take dictation and memorize. And the ability to separate from the herd is definitely not linked to intelligence--it is linked to temperament along with your early environment. You have to be born not caring very much about fitting in, and then if your experience leads you to not trust people, you are cut out to be a dissident. Evolution rewards both dissidents and sheep--sometimes you have to follow the leader for the species to survive, and other times the opposite, so both survive in the population. The Ivy League and medical school both reward sheep, not dissidents, now not even dissident professors. The eventual result is the gradual dulling and dumbing of the graduates. 99% of medical school graduates of the last two decades are no more than zombies.

Expand full comment
210 more comments...

No posts